Haemoglobin blogging

Gavin Band writes:

I wondered what you (or your readers) make of this. Some points that might be of interest:

– The effect we discover is massive (OR > 10). – The number of data points supporting that estimate is not *that* large (Figure 2). – it can be thought of as a sort of collider effect – (human and parasite genotypes affecting disease status, which we ascertain on) – though I haven’t figured whether it’s really useful to think of it that way. – It makes use of Stan! (Albeit only in a relatively minor way in Figure 2).

All in all it’s a pretty striking signal and I wondered what a stats audience make of this – maybe it’s all convincing, or maybe there are things we’ve overlooked or could have done better? I’d certainly be interested in any thoughts…

The linked article is called “The protective effect of sickle cell haemoglobin against severe malaria depends on parasite genotype,” and I have nothing to say about it, as I’ve always found genetics to be very intimidating! But I’ll share with all of you.